Jeff’s Past: Dopplegänger #3, East Coast

Betty Gates welcomes us to the neighborhood

Living just outside Washington, DC, I’ve often had to fend off queries about my relationship to Robert Gates, former head of the CIA and Defense Secretary (NOT!). And, now that I’m thinking about it, I walked with a cloud over my head when I lived in LA and in close proximity to Darryl Gates, former Chief of Police (do you see a trend here?)

When my wife and I moved to our first house we didn’t find out until after we moved in that the couple next door was also named Gates. Not only that, but her name was Betty, the same as my mom’s.

But all in all, things quieted down quite a bit until a few years ago. I got a call from CitiBank. They were looking for a Jeff Gates who had decided he no longer wanted to pay off his credit card after making numerous calls to 900 and 976 numbers.